Retailers ready for 'war' with Amazon

CANBERRA - Australian electronics and homeware retailers are preparing for the invasion of US online giant Amazon, with some vowing to take the fight to the store.

Last week, Amazon confirmed its rapid Australian expansion by announcing that it was searching for a site to build its "fulfillment center" - a large warehouse for storing and shipping goods purchased online - but local retailers, including Harvey Norman's founder Gerry Harvey, has said he will make it hard for Amazon to succeed Down Under.

Harvey Norman sells electronics, furniture and bedding - all markets in which Amazon hopes to hold a stake, but Harvey has said that he will happily go toe-to-toe with the giant to maintain his share in the Australian market.

"In America and other parts of the world, they have just demolished other retailers, no question about that, and they send a lot of retailers broke," Harvey told News Corp on Monday.

"There is no question they have one ambition, and like Attila the Hun, or Alexander the Great, they just want to demolish everything in front of them and then at the end of day claim to be victorious and make their own rules.

"So this is a company that is extraordinary by any measure and defies every rule that has ever been written about a business."

Some analysts have said that Amazon could take in as much as $3 billion in sales in its first 5 years in Australia (around 1 percent of the total $225 billion market), but Harvey has refuted those claims, saying that local retailers would be putting up "one hell of a fight" when Amazon launches its main retail services in Australia.

"We will be out there fighting them like no US citizen retailer has ever fought them," he said. "Any price that they put we will beat or equal."

Meanwhile, Harvey's thoughts were backed up by those of former CEO of supermarket chain Woolworths, Roger Corbett, who said Amazon would struggle to replicate its lower wages and claims of lightning-fast delivery to rural parts when it opens in Australia.

"Amazon will have an impact on the market place, but they are coming into an already very competitive market," he told News Corp.

(China Daily 04/25/2017 page10)